A new set of drivers for the Surface Duo cellphones from the first and second generations has been made available by Gustave Monce, the DuoWOA Project’s inventor. These drivers are required to make the dual-screen cellphones from Microsoft work with a desktop operating system and function as miniature Windows PCs with two displays. The compatibility with more sensors, enhanced brightness control, charging support, and many bug fixes are all included in version 2212.12.
What has changed for the original Surface Duo is as follows:
- Under Windows, charging has finally worked! Since this is the first iteration of the charging stack, several features are currently restricted. While work is being done, the charging input is restricted to low current for safety reasons.
the Qualcomm SMB1380 Secondary Charger driver is included.- adds a driver for the primary charger and fuel gauge for the Qualcomm PM8150B.
- allows for adaptive brightness level for content.
- the Pedometer Sensor from Duo is now supported.
- adds assistance for the Light Fusion Sensor from Duo.
- For Surface Duo, the new Tablet Posture experience is now turned on by default. You can anticipate a taskbar that is more suited to tablets, larger hit targets in Microsoft Edge and File Explorer, and more.
- a few issues with duplicate sensors are addressed.
- enables both panels to have smooth brightness control.
- a problem that prevents USB Function Mode from functioning is fixed. This problem mostly affected computer-based USB file transfers.
- updates the Surface Duo firmware to the most recent November OTA release for Android.
- Long-forgotten improvements and bug fixes.
- Call provisioning is still under development, thus you might need to manually supply the call capability if calls do not currently function for you. (Identical to Lumia 950s)
And now the Surface Duo 2, which has considerably less Windows support than its predecessor at the moment:
- a problem that prevents USB Function Mode from functioning is fixed. This problem mostly affected computer-based USB file transfers.
- Updates the Surface Duo 2’s firmware to the most recent November OTA Android update.
- Call provisioning is still under development, thus you might need to manually supply the call capability if calls do not currently function for you. (Identical to Lumia 950s)
It is important to note that sensor calibration (follow the instructions provided on GitHub) and updating the UEFI to version 2212.12 or higher are required in order to allow the Surface Duo’s sensors to function with new drivers on Windows 11. Consider the following recognised problems as well:
- Using the orientation sensor on the right panel, Automatic Orientation only functions for the left panel.
- It’s possible that currently unpowered USB dongles won’t function.
- Currently, USB C Billboard devices are not compatible.
- Support for external Display Streams won’t function right now.
- There is presently no public access to any more data provided by the posture sensor, including peek events.
- When the device is folded over, the digitizers will not respond.
- Most of the time, displays won’t respond when a device is folded over.
- Data from the physical device is wrong.
- Digitizers are not adequately calibrated.
Gustave has shared all the functional and unworking features for the project on GitHub, where you may follow its progress. If you can’t afford to brick your dual-screen smartphone, we advise waiting for more user-friendly techniques and tutorials because switching Android with Windows on Surface Duo handsets is a difficult task. Fortunately, the original Surface Duo is still available for around $314, so you might want to think about getting one to test out how well Windows 11 works on a smartphone.
